A quarterly newsletter from the Botany Dept (NMNH) and the U.S. National Herbarium.

Staff Profile

03/21/2019

Ida Lopez came to the Smithsonian in June 1998 as a Museum Specialist to work with me to develop the Zingiberales and Monocot Research Program in Botany. I could tell immediately when I first met her that our partnership in pursuing science, collection development, and running the day-to-day operations of the lab had the potential to be a long-term interaction. Now, twenty years later, my first impression has proven correct. Congratulations, Ida, on a tremendously successful career.

I do not think Ida knew much about Museum Collections when she arrived, but the enthusiasm and welcoming spirit of the Collections Management Team in Botany quickly solved that problem and she became a specimen devotee. This was not only true concerning herbarium specimens, but also the development of our extensive and important living collection in the Botany Greenhouses. Over the years the improved care and maintenance of both living and preserved specimens became one of her prime concerns. And the devotion she has shown towards our living collections, not only the Zingiberales, but all of our research specimens, especially over the last several years with the lack of adequate greenhouse management, has been beyond the call of duty. All of us in the Department thank her for her efforts.

With regards to research, Ida has been instrumental in most if not all of the hundreds of papers and books that have been published through our lab during her tenure. Not only has she been a co-author on a number of those papers, but her keen eye for effective and clear figures and illustrations was unsurpassed. The book I published with Ted Fleming on the “Ornaments of Life” (University of Chicago Press) is loaded with Ida’s handiwork and our opus on “Methods and Protocols of DNA Barcoding” (Humana Press/Springer) could not have been done without her contributions.

Whenever I came back from a field trip that was focused on pollination of Heliconia in the Caribbean or searching for new gingers in Southeast Asia, I realized that Ida also needed that kind of field experience to help her manage all the other aspects of the lab. So off we went to Dominica to build an experimental shade house for breeding system studies in Heliconia, and off we went to Myanmar to work with the Forestry Department, and off we went to Yunnan, China, to collect gingers. I was right: her excellent assistance in the field provided a much better background for coordinating our research activities at home. Time to go back to the field, huh, Ida?!?

In addition to those full-time activities in research and collections, Ida managed the lab and all the lab workers within. Not only did she manage the funds for our research grants, both internal and external, but she also initiated the contracts and placed all the orders. Probably most important was the wonderful care that she provided for the scholarly visitors, the interns, the post-docs, the students, and all the other colleagues who passed through the lab. It was an unending stream of personalities. Probably one of her most rewarding activities was mentoring young scientists through the YES Program at NMNH and through local high schools. I thank her for all of these interactions that made the lab so rich and vibrant.

This short summary of Ida’s time at the Smithsonian is starting to sound like a “career performance appraisal” for Ida. However, performance appraisals really do not always get to the core of one’s contributions to the museum and to science. Ida was deeply committed to learning about and participating in natural history science. And I think she made our lab exceptional in that way because everyone who came to the lab learned to share that commitment. Our scholarly activities were a success because to her. Thanks, Ida. Yes, thanks so much.

03/18/2019

Karen Adey, producer and executive producer of more than a hundred Smithsonian films, passed away on December 29, 2018. Wife of Research Botanist Emeritus, Walter Adey, she has spent the past 20 years managing and accompanying research cruises aboard the Adey research vessel Alca i in the North Atlantic. Adey worked closely with her husband on directing underwater videos and on the research and development of new water cleaning technology. Early in her career, she founded the Smithsonian’s Motion Picture Unit in 1969, and in the 1980s, she was the Deputy Director of Smithsonian Productions, a now shuttered film, video, and radio unit. Her productions won 5 Emmy Awards and more than 70 national and international honors.

11/20/2018

Department of Botany intern Fiona Miller from Smith College worked with Vicki Funk during the summer of 2018. During her 10 weeks at NMNH she contributed to the Smithsonian Women in Science project (part of the Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Initiativehttps://womenshistory.si.edu/). Before she arrived some of the curators in the Smithsonian science bureaus (NMNH, SERC, STRI) along with Pam Henson and Effie Kapsalis (Smithsonian Archives) had created a spreadsheet with the names and available information for all the women who had worked as curators in the various units. Miller had two main goals, 1) complete the spreadsheet (depending on available information) and 2) select a subset of the women to develop or improve existing Wikipedia pages.

Botany intern Fiona Miller

Miller gathered information using a variety of resources including Smithsonian Archives and Smithsonian Libraries and, of course, she used internet searches. She also conducted interviews with some of the women and some of the older retired curators.

The goal of the Wiki pages is to make women in science at the Smithsonian more visible to the public. Miller felt that while some women such as Mary Agnes Chase (NMNH Botanist & Suffragette) had received attention, many other women at the Smithsonian had not been as recognized for their work as their male colleagues. She was glad to make a few more of the women known.

Miller found that women in the early 1900s were not always hired as scientists but as aids and secretaries for male colleagues. She found it interesting to see the different career tracks these women took to navigate the scientific world to find jobs and opportunities. She wrote, rewrote, and edited over 15 Wikipedia pages for women in the museum, some whom are currently employed, but she also used the Archives to locate information on a few that were at NMNH about a hundred years ago. In addition, she started the beginning stages of about 60 more women’s Wiki pages.

Miller is just starting her junior year at Smith College majoring in Italian with a minor in Archive Studies. She is headed to Florence, Italy, for a year of study and will return to Smith for her senior year.

11/01/2018

In 1995 the Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield (BDG) Program was in need of a new database manager. Judy Skog, then a Professor at George Mason University, recommended one of her students, Tom Hollowell, as a smart and capable person to take on the job. We hired him and we were quite surprised. Not only was he smart and talented at working with databases, he was also funny and optimistic; he loved music, environmental conservation, political activism, riding his bicycle to work, and of course, his family and friends.

Tom Hollowell at the annual meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) meeting in Berlin, Germany (2016)

Tom was the BDG data manager from 1996 to 2005, responsible for a database of over 150,000 records, producing labels for incoming collections and exchange, and updating the database as identifications arrived. He also coordinated students and volunteers working with the BDG Program databasing and barcoding plant specimens at the U.S. National Herbarium that had been collected in the Guiana Shield region. Tom had a strong sense of teamwork and was always there to help find solutions to any problems. He never shied away from assisting staff and researchers with data inquiries or with troubleshooting programs such as ArcMap, Access, or EMu.

Tom Hollowell at Shell Beach, Guyana (2001).

As the Program expanded to include the animals of the Guiana Shield, Tom was instrumental in coordinating researchers from different disciplines and departments to produce the various BDG publications and projects. While working full-time Tom went back to college at night to pursue a Doctoral degree in Environmental Science and Public Policy at George Mason University, receiving his PhD in 2005. As part of his dissertation research Tom studied fire-disturbed mangrove ecosystems in the Shell Beach area of Guyana.

During his time with the Program Tom co-authored many of the BDG publications. We would have kept him forever, but he left for a good cause: becoming a key player in NMNH’s Office of Informatics Technology, helping make the museum’s new database systems function. Before he left he trained and mentored his replacement, Sara Alexander (BDG 2006-2012; now with ITIS). Although he moved up a floor he never lost his connection to Botany, and stopped by frequently… especially when we had food!

05/29/2018

In 2015, Emeritus Research Botanist Dieter Wasshausen honored Linda Hollenberg by naming a new plant species Mendoncia hollenbergiae Wassh. This species in the Acanthaceae was first collected from the lowland riverside vegetation of the Yasuni National Park, Ecuador.

As this issue of The Plant Press was going to press, we were saddened to learn that Linda Ann Hollenberg passed away on 21 April 2018 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Hollenberg was born on 6 May 1953 in the District of Columbia. She joined the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany in 1979 as a Museum Specialist. Hollenberg had been responsible for a number of critical core functions within the Department, including overseeing all Botany collections at the Museum Support Center, collections space in the herbarium, administrative, budget preparation, fund allocation, collections conservation issues, and special projects. She retired from the Smithsonian in 2014.

Hollenberg was an integral part of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) council since 2005, first as a co-chair on the Education and Training Committee before becoming chair of the Archive Committee. She served as Archivist for SPNHC for 11 years. She was also active in several local native plant societies and volunteered as an usher for lectures sponsored by the Smithsonian Resident Associates and for performances at Arena Stage and Shakespeare Theatre.

02/26/2018

Stanwyn G. Shetler passed away in Leesburg, Virginia on 4 December 2017 from complications related to Parkinson’s disease. Shetler was born on 11 October 1933 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He grew up in rural Hollsopple about 15 miles southwest of Johnstown and graduated from Johnstown Mennonite High School (now Johnstown Christian School). His father, Bishop Sanford G. Shetler, a prominent leader in the Mennonite community, founded this high school and was its principal. This may explain why Shetler felt motivated to graduate Valedictorian of his class. Shetler acknowledged that his interest in natural history began with bird watching when he was in the sixth grade and was stimulated by a science teacher and fostered by his mother. He ultimately chose Botany as his profession, but Ornithology remained his lifelong avocation.

Shetler earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in 1955 and 1958, respectively, from Cornell University after first attending Eastern Mennonite College (now University) in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He came to the Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, in 1962 directly from graduate school at the University of Michigan where he was a student of Rogers McVaugh. Shetler joined the Smithsonian before completing all of the requirements for his doctoral degree, but eventually he defended his dissertation and received his Ph.D. in 1979 shortly before McVaugh retired. Both his thesis and his dissertation concerned problems related to the taxonomy of the genus Campanula (Campanulaceae).

Shetler began as an Assistant Curator in the Museum and rose to the rank of Curator. He had responsibility for North American plants, including the flora of the Washington, D.C. region. For a decade from 1984 to 1994, Shetler also was assistant to the Director of the Museum, which left him little time for research. As Associate and then Deputy Director, he served under three different directors: James C. Tyler, Robert S. Hoffman, and Frank H. Talbot. Shetler was highly regarded for his fairness and calm demeanor. One administrative decision that continues to influence decision making in the Museum is the informal “Shetler Rule” regarding the procedure for replacement of staff who leave employment. Shetler retired in 1995 and received his final professional title, Curator Emeritus. He continued to work in the U.S. National Herbarium until 2010 when his health made commuting difficult.

11/15/2017

Sue Lutz has accepted a supervisory detail to serve as the Acting Collections Manager for the U.S. National Herbarium and began her duties on 1 September. Lutz joined the Department of Botany in 1997 in an administrative post while working half time as a research assistant to curator Walter Adey. For the last 10 years she has split her time working with Adey on algal biogeography and the systematics of coralline algae, and Jun Wen on the systematics of Vitaceae and the biogeography of intercontinental disjunct plants in the Northern Hemisphere.

05/11/2017

Nancy Khan, museum specialist, has accepted a supervisory detail which includes serving as Acting Collections Manager for the U.S. National Herbarium. She began this detail on March 6. Khan joined the Department of Botany in 2010, working with Warren Wagner on the Flora of the Pacific Islands and the Onagraceae family. Department Chair Laurence Dorr says that he “looks forward to working with her to facilitate continued improvements, innovations, and development of the U.S. National Herbarium, an important botanical resource that underpins our scientific work and those of many other researchers throughout the country and the world.”

02/28/2017

Research Greenhouse Manager, Mike Bordelon, retired in October 2016 after 22 years of service in the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Bordelon, a University of Maryland graduate (B.S. in Botany), was the greenhouse production manager for 15 years at Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville, Maryland, before I was able to lure him away to manage the brand new Botany Research Greenhouses in 1994. Bordelon had come highly recommended by the staff at the United States Botanic Garden.

The Botany Research Greenhouses, located in Suitland, Maryland, at the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center (MSC), play a significant and supportive role for the National Museum of Natural History’s Department of Botany and the U.S. National Herbarium. While the internationally well-known herbarium has a collection of over 5 million dried, pressed, and preserved plant specimens, the greenhouses maintain an impressive collection of nearly 6,000 living plants. These specimens are used by curators to resolve complex taxonomic problems, to describe new species, and to understand the life histories of plants that are difficult to study in their native habitats. They also serve as an important reservoir for genome-quality tissue and to conserve rare and threatened species.

Bordelon came to the Smithsonian with a strong background in greenhouse maintenance and plant care, which was just what was needed for the new 7,000 square foot growing facility that had just opened on the MSC campus. Previously, the Department of Botany had maintained a very small greenhouse on the roof of the Museum! This facility only received direct sunlight for a few hours a day and was hardly adequate for growing the specimens needed for scientific study.

02/20/2017

On a cold morning in February 1975, I walk into the office of the Department of Botany Chairman, Edward Ayensu, to begin my first day of work at the U.S. National Herbarium. Ten minutes later, another new technician enters; George Frederick Russell III, aka Rusty. This is one of the few days that I arrive to work before he does during the following 40 years. He is an early bird, and on more than one occasion has shared sunrise pics taken while walking from Union Station or shot from his office window. Rusty was a University of Maryland ‘Old Boys’ rugby player back then, and came into work on Mondays, scraped, bruised, wrapped, and sometimes limping. Four years later, Rusty became Collections Manager and my boss.

Rusty Russell (photo by Julie Myers)

We grew up together in the Herbarium. It’s hard to imagine the Botany Department went from carbon paper to Xerox machines, and from typing and retyping manuscripts to word processing. Rusty was one of the first to embrace computers and new technology. When bar codes and scanning appeared in grocery stores, Rusty walked into the office one morning and asked, “What do you think about putting bar codes on specimens, with all the associated collection data attached?” Brilliant! Others thought so too. This pioneered the use of bar codes in museums worldwide.

Over 30 years ago, Rusty organized in the Botany Department the first formal intern program in the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) specifically dedicated to collections projects. That morphed into the NMNH Intern Program overseen by others. Since that time, he has personally supervised over 280 high school and college interns. He never asked interns to do what he described as ‘numb-numb’ work, but always assigned meaningful tasks to learn something new and worthwhile to enhance our collections and information.